Sports News | Harvinder Advances to Pre-quarters in Quest for Second Paralympics Medal

Paris, Sep 4 (PTI) Tokyo Paralympics bronze medallist Harvinder Singh outclassed Tseng Lung-Hui of Chinese Taipei 7-3 to make the men's recurve open pre-quarterfinals in archery competition of the ongoing Paris Games on Wednesday.

Harvinder, the only Paralympics medal-winning Indian archer, drew the first set 25-25, before he shot one 10 and 9 to win the second 27-26 and take 3-1 lead.

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Lung-Hui dished out a near perfect third set when he dropped just one point to win it 29-26 and bring the scores level at 3-3.

But Lung-Hui faltered in the next two sets as Harvinder held his nerves to win 24-23 and 25-17 and seal his last-16 berth.

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In recurve open class, archers shoot from a standing position at a distance of 70m at a 122cm target made up of 10 concentric circles, scoring from 10 points down to 1 point from the centre outwards.

Hailing from a farmer's family from Ajit Nagar in Haryana, Harvinder faced significant adversity early in life.

When he was just one and a half years old, he contracted dengue and received injections for treatment. Unfortunately, the side effects of these injections resulted in a loss of function in his legs.

Despite this early challenge, he found a passion for archery after getting inspiration from 2012 London Paralympics.

He made his debut at the 2017 Para Archery World Championship, finishing seventh.

A gold medal at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Para Games followed, and during the COVID-19 lockdown, his father turned their farm into an archery range to support his training.

Harvinder made history by winning India's first-ever archery medal -- a bronze -- at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago.

Alongside his sporting success, he is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in economics.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)